Fertilizer hurts soil bacteria more than losing plant species does
Wu D, Quzong C, Jia Z, Schwalb A, Guggenberger G
Soil Health
If you've ever over-fertilized a lawn or garden bed and noticed the soil turning sour and lifeless, this study shows exactly why: nitrogen fertilizer acidifies soil and quietly wipes out the beneficial, slow-growing bacteria that keep soil healthy, favoring weedy fast-growers instead.
Scientists spent seven years removing plant species and adding nitrogen fertilizer (urea) to high-altitude grassland plots in Tibet to see what matters more for soil health. It turns out the fertilizer was the bigger problem: it made the soil more acidic, which knocked back the diverse, slow-growing bacteria that typically thrive in healthy soil and let fast-growing, less beneficial bacteria take over. Losing plant species mattered too, but its effects on soil bacteria were much milder than the fertilizer's.
Key Findings
Seven years of urea addition caused soil acidification and a stronger negative effect on plant alpha-diversity than plant species removal did
Structural equation modeling identified soil acidification from urea as the strongest driver reducing bacterial alpha-diversity and shifting bacterial beta-diversity
Urea addition suppressed oligotrophic bacteria (Acidobacteriota, Chloroflexota, Planctomycetota, Gemmatimonadota) while favoring fast-growing copiotrophic taxa (Bacillota, Bacteroidota, Pseudomonadota)
chevron_right Technical Summary
A long-term experiment on the Tibetan Plateau found that adding nitrogen fertilizer harms underground bacterial diversity in grassland soil far more than losing plant species does, mainly by making the soil more acidic.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Nitrogen fertilization outweighs plant species loss in shaping bacterial belowground diversity in an alpine meadow on the central Tibetan Plateau.
Plant species loss and nitrogen fertilization affect grassland biodiversity. However, their interactive effects on plant communities, soil properties, and the soil microbiome remain insufficiently ...
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